Walmart Employees Said To Be Planning Strikes, Protests On Black Friday

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WASILLA, Alaska (CBS Seattle) – Reports indicate that Walmart employees from Alaska to New Jersey are planning to protest the superstore on Black Friday, one of the most popular shopping days of the year.

Organizers hope to disrupt Walmart locations through a total of 1,500 protests nationwide, Salon.com learned.

One protester who spoke with the website said that a combination of employee degradation and what he referred to as a “high school” pay rate inspired him to join in the protests.

“I’m sacrificing myself, along with others, to do this … to show Walmart that hey, I’m not afraid, they not afraid, we [are] not afraid,” 45-year-old Myron Byrd, an employee of a Chicago Walmart, was quoted as saying by Salon.com. “Like my mom always said, ‘You see something that’s not right, it’s your turn to fix it.'”

This is the second year that employees have rallied against the superstore in a nationally organized fashion.

Walmart officials are reportedly not taking the protests too seriously, however, and even insinuated that any police involvement in them is planned by the protesters themselves.

“Planned arrests [are] just another way to make these orchestrated events seem newsworthy,” spokesperson David Tovar said in an e-mail to members of the press obtained by the website. “These aren’t real protest by Walmart associates.”